Dwight Howard was in a good mood cheering from the bench as the Lakers routed the Warriors on Friday night at Staples Center. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea, US Presswire

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

The coach firings and hirings, the questions about player input and who will make the call on who comes next. It's the same scenario the star center dealt with during his final act in Orlando.

In the wake of Mike Brown's firing as coach, Howard was trying hard to stay in the background on Friday night, letting the resident locker room spokesman, Kobe Bryant, do the campaigning for Phil Jackson to return. Howard dodged the coaching questions as if they were elbows from a defender.

"I'm going to keep (his talks with team officials about a replacement) between me and (team officials)," Howard told reporters. "I learned my lesson last year."

With indications that Jackson could be on his way back after his retirement in 2011, it's clear that Howard -- who was blamed for the firing of Magic coach Stan Van Gundy late last season -- would be a happy man if the coach known as the "Zen master" returns to Los Angeles.

Asked if he agreed that Jackson was the greatest NBA coach of all time, Howard said he did.

"He is (the greatest), and...I think he'll be great for me," Howard said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports as he walked out of the Staples Center on Friday night. "But as of right now, my main thing is getting healthy and getting these guys together throughout all the scrutiny and all the stuff that we've been through so far -- just keeping the guys together."

Amid all the noise about the Lakers' sluggish start and the sudden firing of Brown, the evolution of the 26-year-old Howard continues ever so quietly. Having been criticized for his handling of his exit from Orlando and scrutinized for the appropriateness of his playful personality, Howard said he's making a concerted effort to become a better leader.

It's a significant development regardless of who the next coach is, as Bryant, 34, is winding down his years as a player and the Lakers -- who want to sign Howard when he becomes a free agent this summer -- are hopeful that Howard can embrace the challenge of becoming the next great big man of their storied franchise.

"I've been more vocal this year than I've been in probably all my years in the league, and guys are listening," said Howard, who is in his ninth season. "People think that I'm keeping things light (in the locker room), but what people don't understand is we go through so much as players on and off the court, and this season we have a microscope on us.

"We're all pulled into the negativity where people bring scrutiny and we can't play and be free, so everybody feeds off my emotions. If I'm up, then everybody is up. If I'm down, then everybody is down. We've just got to find a medium."

While Howard returned from back surgery in April sooner than expected, he is not fully healthy. And while Brown became a casualty of both that reality and the fact that point guard Steve Nash is out with a non-displaced fracture in his left fibula, Howard said his focus remains on the rest of the season as opposed to the beginning.

"I just don't want to put too much pressure on myself to succeed," Howard says. "I know why I'm here. I know what people expect. I'm still not 100%, but I know people are expecting to see what they've seen the last eight years. I think as a team, we looked pretty good (against the Warriors). We had a flow tonight. It's going to get better, the more I get in shape, the more we get in shape."

Howard is hoping to put this latest coaching saga behind him as soon as possible, acknowledging that the experience of his final season in Orlando made him uncomfortable in the current situation.

"Yeah, because a lot of stuff that happened last year -- I really had nothing to do with it, but it came out like it was me," Howard said. "So now when it comes out or if somebody says something about me, I'm going to stand up say, 'Hey, this is not going to happen again.' I'm just going to play. I don't want to get caught up in it."